Apr 28, 2023

07 BOX21

AI on the rise
learn to program,
and a financial milestone.

You will probably have noticed that the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) are on the rise. Elon Musk sends his Starlink satellites over Ukraine using algorithms to map the advance of the Russian army. In agriculture, people are experimenting with smart machines that detect weeds, so that fewer pesticides are needed, and in brokerage, 'web scraping' is an emerging phenomenon in which a brokerage website receives advertisements to remove desired advertisements from other websites. My mother pointed out to me the problem that high schools are struggling with. Students who use chatbots such as ChatGTP to automatically generate papers using AI. And even at the Vilente nursing home, you might not say it, there is a test with sensors in the mattresses that can automatically detect conspicuous things, which is especially beneficial for night care. With limited deployment of staff, you have a 'view' of residents who go for a walk at night or who stop breathing, for example. In addition, of course, the ethical issue: Great that it can all be done automatically, but isn't that also at the expense of personal attention and intuition?

Generated by AI, this person does not exist

Because there are more and more cameras such as wildlife cameras, security cameras, satellites, etc. and it is impossible for people to analyse all this data manually, there is an increasing demand for methods to interpret images automatically. In a short time, websites that automatically map objects have sprung up like mushrooms. Step one is to indicate for a small percentage of a set of photos which objects are in the photo, such as a mug, a plate, a knife. A computer is then trained to automatically recognize these objects for the remaining photos. The possibilities are endless. Does a fishing boat not catch more than allowed? Has the shelf life of a bottle of beer been exceeded? Is someone on their mobile while driving on the highway? AI company V7 has such an object recognition website. A London company that has grown from a few employees to no fewer than 80 in just a year. In the lee of these rapid developments, my employer, programmer Ramon, started building BOX21 in his attic room in Deventer in 2021. A very similar website as V7, but without all the fuss of commerce, complicated functionalities and company outings.

Soon after I abandoned the desire to code a red deer behaviour recognition algorithm on my own, I knocked on Ramon's door in December 2021 who offered me free use of his website BOX21. This was a nice interaction because I didn't have to dive into the complicated code for the time being and for Ramon because he found out which functionalities of the website already worked and which didn't. I uploaded 450 photos with red deer from the Hoge Veluwe National Park and labelled 150 photos as 'grazing', 150 photos as 'moving' and 150 photos as 'standing'. Easy peasy. The website was so user-friendly, with one push of a button there was already the model, or a program that could predict with 77% certainty what behaviour the animal showed for a new photo. Of course that was not satisfying because I also wanted to know what had happened behind the scenes.

It didn't take long for Ramon to share with me the full code that kept the website up and running. For a layman like me, this was an empire. A gigantic labyrinth of codes, where apparently everything was logically connected. While I was busy finishing the thesis, Ramon tried to explain small pieces of code to me in between. In the summer of 2022, when the thesis was completed and he saw the motivation, he offered me to come and work for BOX21 for a fee. At that time it was not enough to move to Barcelona with it, but a logical amount since he spent more time explaining that it really brought him something. Codes that I spent days puzzling with, he had typed himself in no time. It was a collaboration that didn't make me rich, but where I was able to make great programming steps in a short time. As soon as the weekend arrived I said, 'yes almost weekend' to which Ramon said. 'Do you think? I always like weekdays." Great when you have such a passion for what you do. The fact that I was able to learn so much in a year's time is mainly because the commitment and enthusiasm came from both sides. “Do you think BOX21 is a good name, by the way?” Ramon asked. How cool that your boss lets you think along on almost every level.

It is now January 2023, a year later and only since a month has the feeling arisen for the first time that I can also program some tasks independently. The first year I focused on learning the backend system that we program in the Python programming language. This is the invisible part of the website for the user, such as the database. For example, the database is used as soon as someone logs in with his or her username and password, or when a user annotates objects on a photo. Now it gets a bit technical, but you can access the data in that database via endpoints. Especially in the beginning, I could easily spend a month creating and testing such an endpoint. Testing is done in a terminal (black screen) in which the computer gives you an indication of the type of error.

Suppose you code

a = …
3+a=
5+a=

When you assign a number such as 2 to variable a, the effect of this continues in the two consecutive sums. This principle of making a change with an action for a large amount of data is the basis of programming. Now that I'm starting to get the hang of it a bit for the backend, the front-end has also been added in programming language JavaScript. Front-end programmers organize what you see as a user on the website, such as the layout or a piece of text. Although it is a self-contained system, I find that I benefit a lot from having already learned the backend system, because there are many similarities in the structure. A popular term for people who know something about both front-end and back-end is full-stack. So now I can call myself that too! In addition, I also kept track of the social media for a while, of which I add some photos to this blog. After I had posted something weekly for six months, I went to Ramon to find out how many people had already signed up to use BOX21. To my disappointment it was only a few people from Ramon's circle. But luckily Ramon remains calm. First we make sure everything is in good condition Jorrit.

Not only our website BOX21 contains AI. When typing our codes, we have recently started using AI ourselves to automatically generate suggestions based on what you have typed. They may seem like small details, but they are unprecedented changes. Our profession is going to change says Ramon. The expectation is that we will no longer have to type the codes ourselves, but that we describe what we want and that programming is done for us. As a programmer, you actually supervise. And if you can't figure it out, ask ChatGTP and he will help you in 9 out of 10 cases. GTP has all the knowledge, he is always available and comes up with a razor-sharp answer that you could easily have searched for a few hours yourself. ChatGTP doesn't care if I paste my entire script into it and my question is only about part of it. An enormous enrichment in the profession that allows people to be much more productive. Although I'm glad I started learning it when it didn't exist yet.

After a long period of financial malaise, a redeeming message came in February: Jorrit I see that you are doing your best and that you still have a way to go, but I would like to give you a salary increase. Finally the pressure was off the boiler. The fear of my laptop breaking down, no longer the need to scour Barcelona for the cheapest bottle of detergent, and just do a 20 euro a month for your friends in the Netherlands. I don't expect luxury holidays in the coming year, but I can pay for my room, workplace and a good shopping bag here and I am very happy with that at the moment.